Kevin Smith Shares the Story of How He Met His Wife to Celebrate Their 20th Anniversary

Never let it be said that you can’t find true love thanks to a comic book.

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Filmmaker, writer, and well-known comic book fan Kevin Smith took to Instagram celebrate the 20th anniversary of the day he met his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach by sharing a collage of throwback photos of the day back in 1998 as well as the story about how a comic book signing changed his life. You can check out the post below.

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of a signing we had at @gapplecomics back in 1998 to celebrate the release of the Clerks comic book. So that means TODAY is the 20th anniversary of the day I met Jennifer Schwalbach, when she interviewed me for a @usatoday! I was looking my absolute adult thinnest and following a successful Chasing Amy release, we were about to start shooting Dogma. I was in L.A. for the signing with @jimmahfood & cover artist #gilberthernandez. @chrisrock was also in town shooting a Lethal Weapon flick, so he and I made time to meet at the old Bel Age Hotel on Sunset to rehearse all of his Rufus scenes. After that, I was scheduled to meet with a USA Today journalist to talk about the new comic book and the Oscar chances of Good Will Hunting. So Rock and I rehearse and as he’s leaving, I tell him I’m doing an interview with USA Today next and that I feel weird that it’s in my hotel room. Rock jokes “Better here than the bar downstairs. It’s filled with hookers!” Ten minutes after Rock left, there was a knock on my door. When I answered it, a stunning young woman roughly my age was standing there. And because up to that point, anyone I’d ever been interviewed by at USA Today had been in their late 40’s, the first thought that ran through my head when I saw the face of my future wife was “Oh no! Chris Rock sent a hotel bar hooker to my room!” It’s not the sweetest meet-cute story but it has led to two decades of love, not to mention a whole new human being that was never going to exist unless we met. 20 years ago from this moment, I’m still rehearsing with Rock, with no clue that I’m mere hours away from meeting the most important and impactful person I’ll ever know. And I’m not even wearing a jersey, jorts or a baseball cap. (Photos by the great @albertlortega and @gettyimages.) #KevinSmith #jenniferschwalbach #comics #90s #onipress #jimmahfood #goldenapplecomics
A post shared by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on Feb 20, 2018 at 12:43pm PST

As Smith writes, he was in Los Angeles to celebrate the release of the Clerks comic book and, while in town, spent some time working with Chris Rock who would appear in Smith’s film Dogma as Rufus, the previously unknown thirteenth apostle who came to aid Bethany Stone (Linda Fiorentino) on her mission to save existence itself from two renegade angels, Bartleby and Loki (played by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.) He was also there to be interviewed by a reporter from USA Today — which turned out to be Schwalbach who Smith might have, briefly, mistaken for a sex worker.

“So [Chris] Rock and I rehearse and as he’s leaving, I tell him I’m doing an interview with USA Today next and that I feel weird that it’s in my hotel room,” Smith writes. “Rock jokes ‘Better here than the bar downstairs. It’s filled with hookers!’ Ten minutes after Rock left, there was a knock on my door. When I answered it, a stunning young woman roughly my age was standing there. And because up to that point, anyone I’d ever been interviewed by at USA Today has been in their late 40’s, the first thought that ran through my head when I saw the face of my future wife was ‘Oh no! Chris Rock sent a hotel bar hooker to my room!’”

While Smith admits that it’s not the sweetest story, it is pretty funny and, fortunately for Smith, Schwalbach doesn’t seem to have been too bothered by it. The two married in 1999 and have a daughter, actress Harley Quinn Smith, together. But even with the interesting meet-cute, Smith clearly appreciates the significance of the meeting and the photos he shared, noting that it’s interesting to look back and realize he had no clue then how his life would change.

“20 years ago from this moment, I’m still rehearsing with Rock, with no clue that I’m mere hours away from meeting the most important and impactful person I’ll ever know,” Smith writes, making sure to add a little humor. “And I’m not even wearing a jersey, jorts or a baseball cap.”

As for Clerks, the View Askewniverse fictional universe kicked off by the 1994 film the comic book Smith was signing 20 years ago, that’s still going as well. Smith posted to Twitter last fall that he was scouting locations for a Jay and Silent Bob reboot that’s in development.